Bad Girls - Softcover

Voigt, Cynthia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0590601350 ISBN 13: 9780590601351

Publisher: Apple, 1997

Synopsis

Sharing a common goal to be the meanest kids in their class, Margalo and Mikey conspire to turn their fifth-grade class into a minefield and fearlessly confront anyone who would stand in their way. Reprint.

About this title

Review

Bad Girls is the story of two fifth-graders, Mickey Elsinger and Margalo Epps, whose friendship is portrayed through acts of loyalty, betrayal, mischief, and kindness that probe the sweetness and vindictiveness of girls that age. Much of the story pivots on the ethics displayed when Margalo places a squished squirrel in the lunch sack of Rhonda Ransom, who had viciously derailed Mickey's chance to be elected class president, and when Mickey and Margalo stand together in front of the principal when confronted with the act.

From Booklist

Gr. 4^-6. In her landmark YA novel The Runner (1985), Voigt tells her story from the viewpoint of a proud, solitary teenage boy; here, her strong, mean outsiders are female, younger, and funny. Michelle ("Mikey" ) acts mean and dangerous (Why should boys be the only ones to have fistfights or play soccer or be class president?); Margalo pretends to be nice, but she's a tricky liar. When the two girls meet in Mrs. Chemsky's fifth-grade class, they circle each other, slowly becoming friends, outlaws together. Voigt has written a fast-talking classroom comedy that mocks traditional gender roles. Sugar and spice are out. Being "nice" is the worst insult. Meanness is what gets you respect. Teasing keeps you on top; so does revenge, the grosser the better. The story is told almost entirely in dialogue, much like a TV movie, and set entirely at school--the classroom, playground, girls' bathroom, principal's office. It's hard at times to know whom "she" refers to, since the viewpoint keeps switching between Mikey and Margalo and, occasionally, jumps to the smart, bossy teacher; then there are the 28 other class members to keep straight: the various bullies, the Gap girls, the smart student, etc. But the talk is very funny (Mikey had leadership, "just nobody would want to follow her" ); the action is nonstop; and the confrontations are dramatic, both verbal and physical. Voigt gets the querulous, jumpy, obsessive talk, the glimpses of civilization in the fifth-grade jungle, as the friends struggle for both loyalty and independence. There's so much attitude, but there's also failure, and readers will recognize the fact that meanness can be about anger and misery as well as glorious mischief. Hazel Rochman

Edition details

• Publisher: Apple
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0590601350
• ISBN 13: 9780590601351
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 277